Closing the week 36

Closer
Most popular on Closer this week

1. Raad het plaatje – Spitsnieuws Online
2. Spitsnieuws – Kutmarokkanen is geld
3. Spitsnieuws Online – Veel geschreeuw, weinig wol / Islamizing Europe – Muslim Demographics

Featuring Ramadan 2009
30 Mosques in 30 Days
Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq share their Ramadan journey through New York’s Muslim community. They visit 30 mosques throughout the whole month of fasting. The blog has interesting accounts and pictures and is a must read!
Blogging Ramadan Competition – IslamOnline.net – Art & Culture

Believing that Muslim culture is rich, diversified, and inspired by Muslims’ writings and thoughts, [Islam Online’s]Art & Culture Page is launching “Blogging Ramadan” Competition.

Blogging Ramadan is fashioned to be a platform for Muslims to participate with their reflections on the meaning of Ramadan and how they celebrate it in the light of their cultures’ diversity.

Gender
The Global “War on Terror” and Muslim Women | RHRealityCheck.org

We cannot ignore the reality of hatred that is brewing in societies being acted out on Muslim women. Note that my argument is not one that involves whether or not the burqa, purdah, niqab, or hijab is truly a Muslim practice or whether choice is exercised in wearing religious clothing; the fact is that women wear religious clothing and because of this fact they are discriminated against in the context of a growing anti-Muslim sentiment – and this cannot be simply ignored.

French Parliament to Investigate a Possible Ban on the Burqa and Niqab – NYTimes.com

It is a measure of France’s confusion about Islam and its own Muslim citizens that in the political furor here over “banning the burqa,” as the argument goes, the garment at issue is not really the burqa at all, but the niqab.

altmuslim – Honor killings: Rifqa, the Reverend and apostasy

The claims of Fathima Rifqa Bary, the 17-year-old Christian convert from Columbus, Ohio who ran away from home in fear of violence by her Muslim father, are being challenged by local authorities who see otherwise. How far will the culture war take this case?

Muslim family: Problems with Rifqa Bary began with laptop gift — OrlandoSentinel.com

Mohamed Bary is a doting Muslim father, intent on giving his daughter the best education he can. But he says he made a terrible mistake last October: He bought her a laptop computer.

Because of that laptop and access to the Internet, he says he lost his daughter to Christian extremists.

Fathima Rifqa Bary, 17, is 800 miles away, living with a Christian foster family in the Orlando area. She is a runaway who has become a cause célèbre among evangelical Christians. She fled Ohio last month, saying her father had threatened to kill her because she had converted to Christianity.

Not true, Mohamed Bary said.

Anthropology
Is autonomy as a universal aspiration?

During the teen years, kids in Asian and Western cultures alike gravitate toward a broader class of moral imperatives, including rights to privacy, education and freedom of speech, Helwig and colleagues find in another new study published in the August Social Development. Adolescents also appeal to democratic notions, such as majority rule, to justify a preference for representative forms of government — even if they live in a communist or authoritarian society.

tabsir.net » Saudi- Iranian War fought in Sa’ada

Over 5000 people have died in the ongoing war in Sa’ada, 45,000 have been injured and more than 200,000 displaced and living in tents, eating charity food, and sleeping through cold nights.
Saudis and Iranians have convinced the Yemeni government and Houthis to fight each other for nothing.

Question of the day… – Open Anthropology Cooperative

So, is anthropology an apolitical endeavor? Or is it inherently political?

You. Tell. Me.

‘ilm al-insaan ??? ???????: Orthodoxy and New Media in Cairo

Michael Slackman in yesterday’s NYTimes highlighted the greater reach that new media in Egypt has offered dissenting voices in debates on Islam. Using the example of Gamel Al-Banna (brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna) and his recent positive statements over tolerance within the Muslim community, Slackman has pointed out the ways in which the internet as well as other forms of new media offer public forums in which conservative visions of orthopraxy can be actively challenged and debated.

Dutch
Burgerschap op school: alleen papier – Trouw

Burgerschap op school: alleen papier

Sinds 2006 moeten scholen ook werken aan burgerschap en sociale integratie. Maar wat dat precies is? „Een school kan zelf keuzes maken, de overheid wil dat niet sluitend voorschrijven”, aldus de onderwijsinspectie.

NRC commentaar » Niet bij rekenen alleen

Het bestuur van de islamitische basisscholen As-Siddieq in Amsterdam speelt de vermoorde onschuld. De beslissing van staatssecretaris Dijksma (Onderwijs, PvdA) en wethouder Asscher (Financiën, PvdA) om op de overheidssubsidie voor de bijzondere school te korten, is volgens een bestuurder een „misverstand” gebaseerd op „gevoelens”. Maar de sancties kunnen amper een verrassing zijn geweest.

Lezen leer je op de As-Siddieq – Opinie – de Volkskrant

Er moet een politieke keuze gemaakt worden: het toelaten van succesvolle islamitische scholen, die echter met de rug naar de Nederlandse samenleving staan, of het echt zorgen voor een betere kwaliteit van alle scholen, ongeacht of het bestuur zo prettig meewerkt. Dan pas vervalt de reden voor ouders hun kind naar orthodoxe scholen te sturen: onderwijs waar men goed taal en rekenen leert, zodat hun kind verder komt.